This is excellent for those who are sure they are interested in light to medium bondage situations. Really, it'd be great for newbies too, except for the price! But that said, it probably wouldn't meet standards for heavy duty bondage situations-- the sheets and the Velcro are strong enough that even the strongest person can't get away by pulling against the cuffs, but unless extreme care is taken with the placement of the Velcro pads, the captive would not have a difficult time peeling the pad from the sheet and escaping that way.

As long as your captive is willing to suspend disbelief for a little bit, the sheets are absolutely wonderful. The video demonstration provided at Sportsheets website suggests using their tether system to make it more difficult for the captive to escape-- I can see how it might work but don't have the tethers (yet!) and so can't offer my personal experience on that one.

Not to sound like a broken record of the demonstration video, but the cuffs are also nice and versatile! They can be wrist or ankle cuffs, a collar, a belt of sorts, etc. It's really up to you and your partner(s)! Just make sure that however you end up using these, you talk to your partner(s) beforehand. While it is not impossible to escape from the Sportsheets, it could be a little difficult to extract yourself if you suddenly find yourself uncomfortable and wanting to get out. Discuss with your partner beforehand what you are and aren't comfortable with. I'd suggest coming up with a safe word or phrase so if you want the action to stop, you can use that word and your partner(s) will know you really mean it and are not just roleplaying.

Everything about these sheets is better than I expected! Because they basically are Velcro, I was worried about the comfort of the sheets, fearing that they would be as coarse as Velcro strips usually are.

But to my surprise, the sheets almost feel like a low quality velvet-- soft and with a definite grain. Even after applying and removing the pads, the sheets retain most of that soft feel-- after about a month of use, there has been no significant deterioration of the texture. I would almost say the sheets are soft enough for sleeping (I have slept on them a few times, having been so exhausted that I simply passed out afterward, forgetting to replace my normal sheets!) except that they are a bit too thick for my preferences.

The material doesn't smell anymore, though it smelled vaguely of the plastic packaging when I first removed it from said packaging. As for the cuffs, they are relatively comfortable. They are lined with neoprene, which is nice, but I find that they provide a bit too much of the Velcro for use on me-- I have small wrists and so there are a few inches of Velcro that hang over the attachment site on the cuff and, depending on how hard I struggle, either scratch me, my partner, or catch in my hair. I have also found that if I struggle very vigorously, the excess cuff on the inside (again, because my wrists are small!) tends to wiggle out, disrupting the comfort of the cuffs a little bit.

I only have a few problems with the sheets. First, they only come in black. I had expected that to pose an aesthetic problem, as my favorite fitted sheet is white and I feared the black sheets would show through my normal sheets and look ugly. But either due to the thickness of my usual sheets (500 thread count) or some other stroke of awesome, the black color does not show through at all!

Second, in order to get the fitted shape, the sheets were manufactured from several pieces. There is a large central piece and then wings that are sewn to the central piece via some sort of flat felled or multiple-thickness seam. The seam is no problem when it comes to using the sheets, but if you choose to leave the sheets on underneath your normal sheets, you may be able to feel those two ridges (they run the length of the bed on both edges, probably 8-12 inches in from the edge) through your normal sheets. I haven't experienced any real discomfort from sitting on or sleeping on the ridge, but it is something that, if you pay attention, you certainly notice.

And third, while the Velcro pads are very well made, during the first few removals, they leave little plastic Velcro bits attached to the sheets. It's not difficult to remove the Velcro threads, but it is rather difficult to see them (and you definitely feel them later if you forget to remove them! Ouch!) and a pain to worry about if you do a lot of repositioning during your sex sessions.

As I've alluded to in the previous sections, I really enjoy these sheets a LOT. They were an anniversary present from me to my boyfriend and they far exceed my expectations. In the past we'd used scarves, toy handcuffs, belts, and other convertible things for our bondage scenarios but this system is much more versatile, easy to use, and sexier too! While it is a little bit more difficult to attach a cuff to the wrist of a struggling captive than it is to tie a scarf to the wrist, the cuffs are very easy to link together, link to the pads, or attach to rope or scarves for even more functionality.

I have machine washed my sheets once and, to this point, have yet to discover any pilling of the material (one of my frustrations with all sheets!). But I have only had them for about a month and it may be that after multiple washings, they will pill a bit. I will certainly provide an update if they do. As for storage, it's a cinch! I keep the sheets on my bed until I need to wash them and, when I'm not using them for sex, I just cover them up with my normal fitted sheet and voila, my bed looks normal and innocent again! I just keep the cuffs and pads in my nightstand/dresser/toy drawer and whip them out when I want to have some fun. You might think that having to uncover and recover the sheets would be a mood kill, since both take a few minutes and require some rearranging of your pillows and blankets, but I've found that it can actually heighten the experience for me. My boyfriend just gives me a command to prepare the bed as part of foreplay, and the very act of taking the normal sheets off to reveal the Sportsheets almost becomes erotic itself, due to classical conditioning!

One interesting and quirky thing about the Sportsheets Sheet Set-- they actually include a demonstration DVD in the package! The demonstration DVD provides all the instructions you need, and no paper instructions are included. Just be aware that the demonstration DVD demonstrates a few things that aren't included with your Sportsheets: things like tethers and feather ticklers.

I absolutely adore these sheets and am slowly working on expanding the number of things I can use with them, like Sportsheets Tethers, Thigh Cuffs, and Hogtie Sets. These sheets have really made setting up and using bondage scenarios easier, sexier, faster, and more versatile!